Solar eclipse pits superstition against science

Buddy

The Living Force
http://www.sott.net/articles/show/189487-Solar-eclipse-pits-superstition-against-science
Solar eclipse pits superstition against science

This is a very interesting article. I guess we can be prepared to be blasted with reports of all kinds of weird goings-on within the next few days.


Solar eclipse of July 22, 2009:

[quote author=Wikipedia]
The solar eclipse that will take place on Wednesday, July 22, 2009 will be a total eclipse of the Sun with a magnitude of 1.080 that will be visible from a narrow corridor through northern India, eastern Nepal, northern Bangladesh, Bhutan, the northern tip of Myanmar, central China and the Pacific Ocean, including the Ryukyu Islands, Marshall Islands and Kiribati. The longest total solar eclipse of the 21st century has sparked tourist fever in eastern China and India ,Taregana[1][2] , which according to experts is the best place to view the event.[3][4][5] Totality will be visible in many large cities, including Surat, Vadodara, Bhopal, Varanasi, Patna, Dinajpur, Chengdu, Nanchong, Chongqing, Yichang, Jingzhou, Wuhan, Huanggang, Hefei, Hangzhou, Wuxi, Huzhou, Suzhou, Jiaxing, Ningbo and Shanghai, as well as over the Three Gorges Dam.[6][7] A partial eclipse will be seen from the much broader path of the Moon's penumbra, including most of South East Asia (all of India and China) and north-eastern Oceania. The eclipse is part of series 136 in the Saros cycle, like the record setting Solar eclipse of July 11, 1991.

This is second in the series of three eclipses in a month. There was a lunar eclipse on July 7 and now a solar eclipse on July 22 and then a lunar eclipse on August 6.

This solar eclipse is the longest total solar eclipse that will occur in the twenty-first century, and will not be surpassed in duration until June 13, 2132. Totality will last for up to 6 minutes and 39 seconds, with the maximum eclipse occurring in the ocean at 02:35:21 UTC about 100 km south of the Bonin Islands, southeast of Japan. The North Iwo Jima island is the landmass with totality time closest to maximum.
_http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Solar_eclipse_of_July_22,_2009[/quote]


Apparantly a blogger, combining his understanding of [game?] physics with information from a geologist (Jim Berkland) began posting predictions of major earthquakes accompanying the eclipse as early as January of this year.


[quote author=Britton LaRoche]
01/08/2009 (10:12 pm) by Britton LaRoche
So this is the last post on the Eclipse Earthquake simulator. I have no plans to create the simulator (but before I drop the idea all together) I thought I'd use a little Psuedo science to make my own earth quake prediction for the July 22 2009 Eclipse.


Total Solar Eclipse Earthquake Theory
What is the relationship between an earthquake and an eclipse? One normally thinks of a solar eclipse as merely the moon blocking the light of the sun. What one misses with this concept, is that these are two celestial bodies that have a large gravitation pull on the earth. During an eclipse these two bodies combine gravitational forces in exactly one straight line. This means that the gravitational pull of the sun and the moon on the earth are combined during the eclipse.

The eclipse quake theory is as follows; When the gravitational force of the sun and moon are both pulling together they create larger than normal tidal forces. The solar tide is about one third the size of the lunar tide. When these tidal forces work together they provide a larger than normal downward push on a subducted tectonic plate. If the gravitation distortion and tidal forces pass over the joint between two tectonic plates that has not had series of recent earthquakes, the extra gravitational pull, and tidal force push is all that is needed to "pop the seam" and cause a major quake. Molten magma beneath the surface of the earth plays a role too. Because the earth rotates faster than the moon's orbit, this magma tide as well as the ocean tide is often actually directly in front of the moon's path. Matching eclipse data from NASA to earthquake data from the USGS demonstrates a great deal of correlative data between eclipses and an earthquakes.

July 22nd through July 30th 2009 Earth Quake Prediction
I used the theory to predict the biggest magnitude of earthquake activity, and it happens to be in Southern Japan. Japan sits on or near the junction of 4 tectonic plates.


Table of Contents
Page 1 - The Theory and Prediction
Page 2 - Supporting evidence
Page 3 - The Geologist behind the Eclipse Quake Theory-- Jim Berkland (You Tube)
_http://www.garagegames.com/community/blogs/view/15946[/quote]

hmmm...a hypotheses that will be tested soon enough, I guess.


[quote author=http://www.sott.net/articles/show/189487-Solar-eclipse-pits-superstition-against-science]
Siva Prasad Tata, who runs the Astro Jyoti website, straddles the two worlds.
"There's no need to get too alarmed about the eclipse, they are a natural phenomenon," the astrologer told AFP.
But he added: "During the period of the eclipse, the opposite attracting forces are very, very powerful. From a spiritual point of view, this is a wonderful time to do any type of worship.[/quote]

Perhaps an interesting time to ensure a good practice with the prayer-of-the-soul, breathing and meditation exercises? :)
 
The announcement about the next eclipse on March 9 reminded me this hypothesis concerning eclipses having an influence on earth in a goelogical or atmospheric way. In a sense that eclipses increase the tension and trigger events in an environment already "fragile". For me, the most striking point about this can be found about the eclipse of August 11th, 1999. On August 17th, the Turkey was struck by a terrible earthquake. The epicenter was almost in the center of the trajectory of the moon's dome.

SE1999Aug11T.png


langfr-1250px-1999_%C4%B0zmit_earthquake_map.svg.png


Afterward, I had fun to see (quickly) in archives if climatic disasters could be linked with the total eclipses wich followed. That was not very decisive. I was able to find some correlation with quite a lot of uncertainty and it was not statistically significant.
 
FWIW a quick look back at the period that Buddy's article referred to in 2009, there was a quite significant burst of earthquake activity that summer but most of it coming after the July 7th - Aug 6th window of three eclipses, with much of it in the the Pacific region including one 7.5 off India and a 5.7 in China. A series of significant quakes then continued in the region right up to early September. But none on or close to the July 22nd solar eclipse. Proving absolutely nothing! But the fact remains throughout human recorded history eclipses have been seen as portents of doom and there are indications that some of that influence was thought of being connected with impending earthquakes...


Magnitude 7.0 JAVA, INDONESIA September 02, 2009
Magnitude 6.6 SAMOA ISLANDS REGION August 30, 2009
Magnitude 6.2 NORTHERN QINGHAI, CHINA August 28, 2009
Magnitude 6.9 BANDA SEA August 28, 2009
Magnitude 6.7 SOUTHWESTERN RYUKYU ISLANDS, JAPAN August 17, 2009
Magnitude 6.7 SOUTHWESTERN RYUKYU ISLANDS, JAPAN August 17, 2009
Magnitude 6.7 KEPULAUAN MENTAWAI REGION, INDONESIA August 16, 2009
Magnitude 6.6 IZU ISLANDS, JAPAN REGION August 12, 2009
Magnitude 6.1 NEAR THE SOUTH COAST OF HONSHU, JAPAN August 10, 2009
Magnitude 7.5 ANDAMAN ISLANDS, INDIA REGION August 10, 2009
Magnitude 6.6 SANTA CRUZ ISLANDS August 10, 2009
Magnitude 7.1 NEAR THE SOUTH COAST OF HONSHU, JAPAN August 09, 2009
Magnitude 6.9 GULF OF CALIFORNIA August 03, 2009
Magnitude 7.8 OFF WEST COAST OF THE SOUTH ISLAND, N.Z. July 15, 2009
Magnitude 5.7 YUNNAN, CHINA July 09, 2009

source:
http://earthquake.usgs.gov/earthquakes/eqinthenews/2009/

Path of solar eclipse, July 22nd 2009
 

Attachments

  • path-760.png
    path-760.png
    25.2 KB · Views: 40
Back
Top Bottom